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God is supposed to Love us so what in the world is wrong?
By Dr. Billy Graham
Vol 2/ No.1/Feb 2001

Millions of people are crying right now. They're hurting. Many are saying, "The bottom has dropped out of my world" May be it's in the family-divorce and tension and difficulties and problems in the home-or it's at work. And among teenagers, suicide is on the increase.

Why does a God of love allow all of this?

The Bible says, "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (1) We've failed God. We've sinned.

God created man to glorify himself, and then God created woman. And He gave man and woman a gift, the gift of free, moral choice. Man and woman could love god, they could obey God, they could do what God says; or they could reject God. It was their choice.

Then God said, "All the fruits in the whole world are yours to eat, but there's one tree I don't want you to eat of. If you do, you will suffer and die" (2).

There came into the garden a serpent, a snake. And the snake was energized by another force in the world called the devil.

Yes, there is a devil. He is a force of evil in the world. We see evil everywhere. It invades our communities, it invades our homes, it invades our hearts.

The Scripture says, "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat" (3) That's what the devil wanted them to do. He wanted to take over. So he went to Eve and challenged her with questions, and she believed him. She took of the fruit of that tree and gave it to her husband; they blamed each other, and then they blamed the serpent. They blamed everything but themselves (4).

Adam and Eve broke that bone between God and man. They disobeyed God (5). And from that moment on, we have all been disobeying God.

That disobedience is a disease, a disease called sin. It's a disease that is worse than cancer, worse than heart disease, worse than anything we can think of. It breaks out into hate and greed and lust and immorality and racism. All of these things come from the disease that we have inside ourselves.

This sin is in every heart, in every life, in every family. The Bible says, "Sin is the transgression of the law." (6) And the Bible says, "The wages of sin is death". (7) That means spiritual death, separation from God.

Sin has to be dealt with. Our basic problems are not social, they're not in education. Our basic problem is sin in our hearts and in our lives. We are separated from God. God is a God of Judgment: "He hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world." (8) God will judge the world, He will judge the nations, and He will judge you and me. Someday you will stand before God to give an account of how you responded to His son Jesus Christ. Did you open your heart and let Him come in as Savior and Lord and Master? Or did you walk away from Him?

God did something for us in Jesus Christ because He loves us. Jesus came to die on the cross for you and for me, for our sins. And because of what happened on the cross, God can forgive us our sin.

The Bible says that God is love. In 1John 4:10-11 we read, "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be (a covering) for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another." (9) The Bible says that God loves you. God loves you. Whatever your background, however bad you've been, however much you've neglected your neighbor's needs and hurts, God loves ;you. God said, "I have loved you with an everlasting love". (10) God loves you with an everlasting love!

The Bible says that God is unchanging: "I am the Lord, I change not." (11) The Scripture says that in God there is "no variableness, neither shadow of turning". (12) God hasn't changed in millions and millions of years, and He'll never change.

The Bible says that God is holy and righteous: "The Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works." (13) God is holy and righteous and pure. And He demands that same holiness and righteousness and purity in us.

Where are we going to get that holiness?

None of us have holiness. We can't live up to the teachings of Jesus. We don't love our neighbors as we should. We have things in our hearts and minds that are called sin. But that's why Christ died for us. God laid on Him the sins of the whole world, yours and mine. He took the hell that we deserved. He took the judgment that we deserved. The Bible says, "Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust." (14)

He died, and they buried His body in a tomb. But on the third day He rose from the dead, and today He's alive! Jesus is the living Christ: "I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." (15) I'm counting on that!

And the Bible says to you and to me, "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." (16) I've done that. I've confessed with my mouth the Lord Jesus, and I do believe in my heart. I know that I'm saved not because I feel it but because His Word said it.

God gave His Son on the cross. He laid the sins of the world, including yours and mine, on Jesus. He took our hell; He took our judgment. That's what God did.

What does God say you have to do?

First, you must repent of your sin. Repentance means to go the other way, to change your lifestyle. Repentance means being sorry enough to quit, as someone has said. we need to say to God, "I have sinned. I'm sorry that I've sinned. I'm willing to change my way of life if you help me, Lord." We can't repent by ourselves. we need God to help us to repent and to change. Have you repented? Are you sure? If you are not sure, you can make sure today.

Second, you must have faith. Faith is not a blind, irrational leap in the dark. It is commitment. The Bible says, "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." (17)

Third, you must believe. The Bible says, "He that cometh to God must believe that he is," (18) and, "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name." (19) What does that word "believe means? It means that you totally commit yourself, without reservation, to Christ. You must have been baptized or confirmed, and you should be. But deep in your heart you are not certain that your sins are forgiven. There's an empty place in your heart. There's a doubt that you're ready to meet God. You can settle that today by receiving Him into your heart. Has that happened to you? Do you have that absolute certainty that you're ready to meet God? You can make sure today.

2000, Billy Graham
Evangelistic Association
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